Broken Sky
by hahatimeforponies
Summary: One day, Equestria stopped being in one piece, and started being in a million pieces. Enough of them are big enough that nobody needs to think further than the edge of their own little rock. Key Stone can't think that way. He spends all his time staring at the sky and buried in books, waiting for the faintest hint that life is out there. And then it arrives.
1. The Argo - I

A silhouette perched on a pole at the side of the wharf, the form of a pony gazing into the infinite, cloud-streaked aether. Sometimes it'd be thick enough that you could swear for all the sky that nothing else existed. For now, the sky was dark and clear enough to see the stars in glorious detail. Such contrast was a rare treat, and he never missed his chance to enjoy it.

The fun was in picking out constellations - he'd start with Orion, if he could see it, and work his way out from there. Taurus to one side, Canis Major to the other... some clouds blocked most of the Zodiac, and his route to the northern constellations, but as if to make up for it, below him the sprawled the great ship, the Argo in its entirety.

Looking straight down was always a little dizzying, but always worth it. The charts in the library all disagreed about what _Argo Navis_ should look like. The older ones, with stylised, sixteen-pointed stars and intricate illustrations, left it all together, dominating the southern sky. The newer ones, the cold clinical polygons, cut it in three, leaving some orphan stars scattered around.

He imagined that someone, somewhere cared about this enough to make that decision, and that his preference for the former would make them quite cross with him in that polite way that academics are when someone casually disregards their work.

There was an island drifting somewhere near Canopus. It was too far away to pick out much detail, but it was clearly another island - the black spots drifting across the sky like dark stars in a hurry were unmistakeable. Someone, somewhere knew which one was which, and where to find a particular one at any given time. He used to worry about the possibility of islands hitting each other, but it never happened. As many islands as there were, the sky was big enough for all of them.

Once, and only once, a little island had come close - just about close enough for a brief conversation with the old unicorn pony that lived on it with his cat. He had no idea how they fed themselves.

A shout from below broke his concentration. "Key!" He grimaced, and shook himself out of his trance. He peered over his shoulder, to see a pale-coated mare returning his gaze with apprehensive eyes and a tapping hoof. "Key Stone, get down from there before you fall!" He rolled his eyes and nodded his acknowledgement, turning in place to begin his delicate descent. As soon as Key was about two lengths from the bottom, he dropped off the pole. The wharf creaked when he landed; he was not a little pony. She greeted him by ruffling his hair. "Earth ponies belong on the ground, silly."

Key smirked and cast a glance back over the edge. "And where might that be?"

"You know what I mean. Come on, soup's up." He galloped ahead, and she laughed and trailed behind. Home wasn't far away from the wharf: down the hill, past the sheriff's house, across the bridge and tucked cosily behind the hill on the other side of the island. About two and a half minutes walking.

Dinner in a house of eight is never a quiet affair. "The daydreamer's back!" jeered Jade and Jet, twins about half Key's age. He greeted them with a play tackle, causing Jet to panic and fall over his sister. The pair collapsed giggling, allowing Key to continue to the table. Kite Facet was busy making his bowl bounce around by banging his hoof until Oval Cut stopped him. _Big sisters_, his defiant raspberry seemed to groan. _Teenagers_, Oval's eye roll replied. The din of domestic battle dropped to a dull roar when Onyx Ring entered with a yawning Keshi Pearl on his back. After helping his baby daughter into her high chair, he took his seat at the head of the table. He knew that with Key Stone's return, Marble Arch wouldn't be far behind. Sure enough, the front door swung open again and they greeted each other with knowing smiles from opposite sides of the room. Marble disappeared into the kitchen, and quickly returned with a trolley-mounted cauldron. The aroma of hearty vegetable soup filled the room as she began serving her brood. The order was oldest to youngest - that is to say, most to least likely to wait until everyone was served before wolfing down their dinner.

Conversation only began when half the bowls were empty, and the other half were filled with seconds. "So, Key!" Onyx said. Jade and Jet, sitting between them, took the opportunity to duck and retreat from the table. "Any more thoughts about what you want to do for your eighteenth?"

"Uhm..." Key was paralysed. He made a few false starts.

"You could always donate birthday credits to me if you don't want 'em," Oval cut in. Key almost kicked her under the table, but on second thought just glared and ignored her.

"I dunno! I mean... everything I can think of that I want, I already have or is just... ridiculous."

Onyx cracked a smirk. "Like?"

"Seeing another island."

"This old chestnut."

"Yeah."

Onyx chuckled and sighed into his own lap. "I see your point."

"Is it really that terrible if we just don't do anything special on my birthday?"

"Well, if you're sure you're happy with that..." Marble Arch said, wiping stray soup from the table around Pearl. Key nodded and stuffed a slice of bread in his mouth, hoping to stall the conversation long enough for something else to come up. Before long, Kite had the inevitable non-sequitur about himself.

After dinner, Key went straight back out to the wharf to stargaze again. It was starting to cloud over some more, and none of the northern stars were out. The Argo was still all there though, so rather than climb the pole again, he lay on the wharf with his head over the side. The island from earlier was still there, only now it seemed like there were two of them. A larger one not moved far, and a smaller one making a beeline for somewhere. He watched it for a while. The smaller one double-backed once it got a certain distance from the larger one. Its second pass was even faster than the first, though that wasn't saying much.

"Key!" He recognised those motherly tones anywhere. He was much quicker to look around this time. Marble Arch was standing a few lengths back from the edge.

"Get away from there before you fall?" he quipped.

Marble frowned and tilted her head. "Well, yes. But another thing." Key backed away from the edge until the planks stopped creaking. She was visibly more comfortable. "Are you alright?"

Key's answer was rehearsed reflex. "Yeah!"

"You've just... been spending a lot of time out here lately. A mother could get worried." She nuzzled his shoulder. He huffed through his nose at the word 'mother', but said nothing. "I know you're... anxious here, sweetie."

"Bored? Stifled? Smothered, perhaps?"

"You're not alright and you know it." Marble sat down by him. Key sighed. "If there's anyone on this dumb ol' rock you can talk to it's me, eh?"

Key smiled, and looked back up. "Yeah." He said nothing for a while, letting thoughts stew. He was totally unprepared for this conversation, so his feelings had no words. He tried to distract himself by looking at the two islands in the distance through the gaps in the planks. Marble saw this and refocussed him with a nudge and a hard look. He sighed until he was red-faced and light-headed, trying to make something come out, and she sat patiently with him. Then, when nothing came, he started on something. Anything. "Tell me about how you found me again."

"Alright." Marble nodded and took a moment. This was far from the first time he'd asked, and it was a story told in greater (if more dubious) detail with every passing year. "It woulda been eighteen years ago in a couple of days. Of course, that's when we decided to have your birthday, since we don't know when you were born." Key tuned out for the humdrum details, but made sure to look attentive. "I was pregnant with Oval at the time, and y... Onyx and I had just settled down on this here island. Back then it was stuck to a much bigger island, with a forest on it. Ponies knew that it wasn't stable, because none of the islands were stable back then, and there were cracks that got bigger every day. So everyone in the village was trying to get everything they could out of the forest. Somewhere in the forest there were these ruins, and since Onyx is a jeweller, they sent him in to scout the place for gemstones."

"And that's when he found me."

Marble tapped her nose. "A crying foal in a quiet forest is a bit hard to miss. There was a fallen arch on the ground with the keystone missing, he tells me, and he found you where the keystone shoulda been. He waited around for hours looking for somepony, somewhere that mighta left you behind. Then as soon as it looked like you were getting hungry, he brought you home. Nopony in the village recognised you, and in all the time they spent clearing out the forest, they found nothing else alive except for some bunnies and a dead timberwolf."

"I don't think dead timerwolves count as alive." She nudged him again, and he chuckled. "So, what else was in the ruins? Sounds like the only interesting thing they found."

"Oh, you'd have to ask your fa- Onyx. I know he's a bit cagey about some of these things, but if anyone would know it's him."

Key sighed. It seemed like every time he heard the story, a little bit had been lost to time. "Well, thanks anyway."

"I don't see what that's got to do with your cabin fever, hun."

"I..." He lay down again, gazing at the nothing. "I just know there's something... bigger out there. The world doesn't end at the edge of this boulder. Like, even down there, is somewhere nobody on this island knows!" He inched over to the edge and pointed at the island he saw earlier. The second island was even bigger and faster than it was the last time he saw it. Marble gingerly stepped forward, only enough to catch a glimpse of it, before retreating to safety. "I don't even care where I come from, what matters is that I came from somewhere that's not here! You came from somewhere that's not here! I just... I wanna know."

Marble frowned, and patted the back of his head. "Who knows what the future holds, eh? Maybe one day... I don't know. Maybe one day you'll get to sail around the sky."

"Maybe." He knew that labouring the point would just leave himself frustrated. Neither pony said anything for a little while. Key watched the two black dots dance, and Marble watched him.

A chill from the wind prompted Marble to speak. "Hey," she croaked. "You wanna come back home? I know lights-out isn't for another couple of hours..." No reply. "If you want to be alone for a while that's fine, but I think it might be good to get your mind off these things before you sleep."

Key thought before speaking. "Yeah. Okay." He nodded, keeping his eyes on the two islands until he turned to follow Marble off the wharf.

* * *

Key Stone's sleep was fleeting and restless. It always was - how bright it was outside had nothing to do with whether it was time to sleep or not. Some of the older ponies in the village would mention day and night sometimes, but he'd always known it as lights-out and lights-on. The outside lights go off when it's time to sleep, and go on when it's time to wake up. In some parts of the island, like his favourite stargazing spot, the only light that mattered was the omnipresent glow from the shards. His curiosity about them was only in passing; most of the time they were just a nuisance, because the jagged, blinding shapes masked the stars, while still not being enough light to read by. The library had nothing about them, so all he had to go on were stories that he didn't trust, and his own reason. All that told him was that they were pieces of something bright enough to colour the sky.

He slipped out of his bedroom, leaving the door ajar, and silently left the house. He'd been doing it for years, so a light step was second nature to him despite his stature. The village was deserted - everyone in bed. Lights-on wasn't for another four hours. The silent island had an eerie beauty to it. It was like a microcosm of Equestria: small groups of ponies separated by overwhelming nothing.

Half the buildings on the island were functional, and half of those again fully intact. Some had very well-made windows, set in walls that moved if you leaned on them too hard. The village had no shortage of fine roofing, but the streets were dirt paths by now. There used to be cobblestones, but nobody on the island knew how to keep them in good repair.

With nobody to tell him it was dangerous, Key cut through a house without a roof that nobody had lived in for as long as he could remember. There were a few outlines on the walls and floors, where bricks and beams had been borrowed to keep another house in good health. He often wondered what they'd do when they ran out of husks to cannibalise. Whenever he'd asked, they started talking about the weather instead.

The creak of the planks on the wharf made more noise than all of his footfalls on the way there put together. He shuddered, but reassured himself that he wouldn't be heard out here. By the same token, it made climbing up the pole an even more reckless idea than usual, which is exactly why he did it.

The clouds had spread in the last few hours. Their island was passing through a thin one right now, bathing the small gorge that bisected it in mist. He could only see the brightest stars now. He picked out Aldebaran just above horizontal, and following downwards he found Betelgeuse, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Canopus. He remembered the islands he saw by Canopus earlier, but the clouds made dark objects nearly impossible to see. The first island was gone or hidden, but the second one was even bigger again. He wrapped one of the ropes around his legs - more to comfort himself than as an effective measure against falling - and leaned over to squint at it. He could discern an outline; a long, triangular form, bulging at the pointed end so it was almost round, with something thin attached to it crossways, rotating against it. It continued to circle and grow - it was definitely approaching. He contemplated calling out to it, but he had no idea how far the thing actually was, whether the ponies on it would be friendly, or even if there were ponies on it at all.

After a while he tore himself away to dismount from the pole. A nervous misjudgement sent him falling from higher than he'd have liked, and he landed on his flank on the wharf. He didn't like the cracking sound one bit, and quickly scurried to the side. He ignored the growing bruise and returned his attention to the approaching object. With each passing minute, he saw more details: flapping sheets, hanging lines, dynamic motion. The crossways thin bit - a crossbeam, he decided - was always turning to face roughly the same direction. Its course was more accurately described as triangular than circular. A boat perhaps? He'd read about them more than seen them. The boats he read about went on water, large expanses called rivers, lakes, seas. He'd been told they only had them on really big islands. He recognised the pattern - tacking. The boat was zig-zagging to sail against the wind, except this one was turning back on itself every second tack. That could be how it was rising; if the sails were at the right angle, they'd generate lift as well as propulsion.

Maybe once or twice a year a boat would come to the island - that was what the wharf was for. They were usually traders, who usually left disappointed. He grew ever more anxious as it came closer. By the time he could pick out lanterns and individual ponies, he was tugging at the planks either side of him. There was one in a crow's nest, one at the prow, and one at the rear, operating the helm. He thought he could see one of them turn their head towards him, and he bolted. His turn reminded him of his fall earlier, so his dive for the bushes was more of a limp. There he trembled in wait, his stomach dancing and burning at the same time.

He'd been waiting exactly too long for the boat to crest over the wharf, but even when it did it was a surprise. He guessed it was twenty lengths out. The sails were hoisted on the sides of the vessel, rigged to the crossbeam and another beam below. The pony in the crow's nest jumped out and glided on to the wharf with a rope in her mouth. A pegasus! As unusual as a boat was, pegasi were even rarer - he'd never seen a real one before. She hooked the rope around the bottom of the pole he'd been perched on. Using it as a pulley, she pulled the drifting boat towards the wharf. The tension disappeared from the sails, and the crossbeam folded in half to rest flush against the flanks of the boat. Soon, contact was made. He cringed to hear the wharf creak and groan under the tension, but it seemed to be holding - it must have been sturdier than it looked. A second pony, a unicorn, jumped out, another rope floating behind her. The two sailors hurried to tie off the ship, working with practised precision. A third, an earth pony, leaned over the side.

"Safe as houses, cap'n," the pegasus called up with a salute. The presumed captain rolled her eyes.

"Ah think this place is in nighttime. Ah don't think we should go any further." The pegasus sighed and bobbed her head in frustration. "If y'wanna stretch your legs y'can run up and down the dock and take the first watch."

"Fine..."

"See you later, Scoots!" the unicorn chirped as she climbed back up. The pegasus grumbled and returned to the crow's nest, where she slumped over the side.

Key waited several minutes before doing anything. They looked sociable, but the possibility of contact still petrified him. He'd been essentially spying on them as they docked - not something he thought the weary watchpony would take kindly to. Rather than rouse her with a sudden movement, he slowly backed up and retreated through the bushes, never making any more noise than he could hear, and vanishing over the crest of the hill when he saw that she was distracted by playing with her scarf. With the same discretion he left with, he returned home to stare at the clock and not sleep.


	2. The Argo - II

An hour before lights-on, Key twisted out of bed and headed for the kitchen. His stomach felt particularly acidic from lack of sleep, and the best cure he knew for that was an early breakfast. When he nudged open the door, a lantern was already lit. Oval Cut was at the table in front of a bowl of oatmeal, her mane a similar mess, and her eyes similarly drooping. Key arched a brow as he passed, and she flicked an ear back. Alone, they had no show to maintain. Neither said a word until Key returned from the kitchen with toast and coffee for two on a tray.

"You saw it?"

"Heard you coming in."

"Damn."

"The mare on watch wasn't too friendly." Oval knew Key hadn't had the courage to talk to them.

"That's what I was afraid of."

"It was the kind of grouchiness you get when your work suddenly doubles."

"I saw the moment it doubled."

Oval laughed, and hung her head. "You realise this means I have to come with you?"

"I thought you'd never ask!"

She wasn't sure if Key was grinning or grimacing. She threw a hoof up. "There you go again! It's like I have to be your interpreter."

"If you could do the explaining to mom and dad, that'd be fantastic."

"I walked into that one."

Key smiled and drank his coffee.

After breakfast, they left the house together. It was bright out - the earlier fog had been burned off by a shard currently passing close (by shard standards). A few early risers were about, mostly shopkeepers sweeping and setting up. None of them seemed to be paying much attention to the wharf.

Oval was constantly repositioning herself so it didn't look like Key was hiding behind her. The encouragement of a kick finally convinced him to keep up. The bruise from his fall was still tender.

At least two of the crew of the ship were up and moving. The bored watchpony slumped over the crow's nest still, and the unicorn was walking around on deck checking things.

"Oh. _You _again. What do you want?" the watchpony croaked as she spotted the pair cresting over the hill.

Key opened his mouth, and nothing came out. Oval stepped ahead to take the question. "Listen. Lights-on is in about half an hour, and when the town wakes up and notices a ship here, they're going to get the most official-looking ponies they can find to say official-sounding things at you until you go away. So you can wait for that, or you can get what you're looking for through us. Sound good?"

Key nodded and grinned. That was looking confident, right?

The watchpony frowned, dropped to the deck and marched into the cabin. The unicorn paused. "She's probably just going to see what the captain thinks. But I think it's a good idea. I don't see why ponies wouldn't want visitors though. It must get really boring just staying on one island all the time."

"Preaching to the choir," Key deadpanned.

A couple of quiet minutes later, the watchpony returned with the captain, who threw her forelegs over the side. She inspected Key and Oval closely. Key tried the great big grin again.

"Alright, come on board an' we'll talk." She nodded, and the watchpony kicked out a gangplank. Oval scurried up first, with Key following hesitantly. The captain led the way to the cabin. "Ah'm Applebloom, and these are Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo gave a tired salute, and Sweetie Belle smiled and waved.

"I'm Oval Cut, and this is my brother Key Stone."

"Hi." That sounded a lot less goofy in his head.

"He's not a words kind of pony."

The cabin was a simple office arrangement, with ladders leading to the lower decks. Applebloom sat down behind the desk. "Ah've been told you can get us around an... uncooperative local reception."

"That we can, though I doubt a couple of teenagers are in a position to conduct trade."

"Just as well, 'cos we ain't here for trading." Applebloom leaned back and paused. "How old are you? Eighteen? Twenty?"

"Seventeen. Both of us." Key was quicker to the answer. Oval nudged him. He lowered is head and remembered not to say anything.

"Aw, y'just missed it." She smirked and looked down. That long already? "Then maybe y'mighta heard stories, about what Equestria used to be like?"

Oval raised a brow. "A few. They rarely agree."

"Ah ain't gonna bore you with tall tales. Y'probably get enough of those from old folks afraid of heights. Point is, we're here lookin' for information. This rock used to be part of a town called Ponyville. We've been tracking pieces of it for a year or two now."

Key's curiosity trumped his restraint. "How do you know?"

"We have a special map." Applebloom flatbrowed. Key opened his mouth again. "No, y'can't see it. Not now." He slumped and shut up again. "We've been to every other chunk of Ponyville lookin' for the old library, and not found it. Not even a trace. So this must be the one."

"We have a library at least, Key would be able to tell you more about it. He spends enough of his day there." Oval chuckled. Key stuck his tongue out at her.

Applebloom leaned forward. "Is it in a tree?"

"It used to be. They moved all the books out of it when the part of the island the tree was on got unstable."

Applebloom looked up at her two crewmates. They looked at each other, nodded, and then nodded back to their captain.

* * *

Key and Oval returned home to keep up appearances around lights-on, and get a second helping of breakfast while they were at it. They left again as soon as they could escape unseen, where they met Sweetie Belle at the wharf. They'd decided that without an accent or wings, she'd seem the least foreign. Applebloom and Scootaloo took the ship and circled it under the island. No sense waiting for the red tape welcome.

It was early enough that a lot of ponies were still waking up. Sweetie Belle was trying really hard not to gush over places and ponies she remembered. Or lament, if time hadn't been kind to them. Oval brought up the rear of their convoy to keep her from stalling. The library had opened at the stroke of lights-on.

Technically the librarian was a Mrs. Penny Sweet. She was at heart a confectioner, but with the less-than-ideal divisions of Ponyville, she left the sweetshop in the care of her daughter Peppermint Twist, while she managed the library out of necessity. It was a shame really, since the actual librarian was quite new to Ponyville, but skipped town while it happened. Ever since Key started showing an interest in books, he'd done a large part of the cataloguing work in the library, while Penny was just a legal steward. This made him an infinitely better guide than Penny could ever be.

Oval bounced inside first to accost Penny Sweet with small talk. This gave Key the moment he needed to pull the strange new pony into the maze of makeshift bookshelves, where she couldn't be held up with questions of who she was and how she got here.

"So what book are you looking for?"

"There's this..." Sweetie began, entirely too loudly for a library. Key cringed and lowered a horizontal raised hoof. She whimpered, and started again, in a whisper. "There's this old title called _Predictions and Prophecies_. Applebloom tells the story better than I do, but we're trying to retrace what happened on the night of the Catastrophe."

"Catastrophe?"

"When Equestria stopped being in one piece and started being in a million pieces. Or, that's what we called it on our island. Why, what do you call it here?"

"We don't."

"Oh."

"This way. I've set aside books like that." Key hurried to the end of the aisle and up a ladder to the mezzanine. It was darker and dustier than the rest of the library. He had an improvised office up here; just a desk covered in star charts and scribbled notes. Under it was a box. He dragged it out, and the drag reverberated on the planks.

"Oh, Key is in! He must have snuck up on us." Penny Sweet's chuckle from downstairs made him freeze. He pushedSweetie Belle under his desk. "Key!" came the call. He poked his head over the banister. He couldn't see her.

"Yeees?" Absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary. Nothing at all.

"Key, I didn't see you come in! Would you like some Maredeira cake? I made it last night!"

"I'm good, thanks."

"Yes, you're wonderful I know, but would you like some cake?"

Son of a shard this mare was fattening him up to eat him. "A little bit later. I've got my hooves full at the minute."

"Alright." He waited a few moments before gesturing to Sweetie Belle to come out of hiding. She started levitating books out of the box and examining them one by one.

"These are all the books that I couldn't make sense of or categorise. Lots of obscure magic books, and..."

Sweetie squinted at the title of the one she'd just picked up. "_Supernaturals: Natural Remedies and Cure-Alls That Are Simply Super_?"

"... I wasn't sure if that should go in health or lifestyle."

Sweetie Belle shrugged and put it to one side. Indeed, _Predictions and Prophecies_ was in the box. She flicked through it for kicks. A diagram she saw for a split second on a passing page looked familiar. She'd seen it not a moment ago, on the cover of another one of these books. She was able to backtrack and match it to the front cover of _The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide_. She decided to grab both books for good measure. Key took some saddlebags, and stuck some notes, paper, stationery and a rolled up starchart in them. He descended ahead of Sweetie Belle.

At the front of the library, he bounded up to the front desk. He immediately took a slice of cake and exaggerated his appreciation, muffling nothing in particular. Sweetie Belle hurried out the door behind him.

"It's been lovely to catch up Mrs. Sweet, but I..." Oval looked at her brother. He nodded, losing a crumb. "I think it's time we were off? Key and I were just picking up a few bits and pieces in town, they want us at home."

"I'm sure I'll be around later," Key managed, swallowing the last of his mouthful.

"Okay, you kids have a great day now!" Penny beamed.

* * *

The three returned to the wharf. Key went up to the edge and peered over. He couldn't see their ship.

"So... how will they know that we're ready? I don't think we thought about that part."

Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Oh, that part's easy." Without hesitation, she broke into a gallop and jumped off. Key and Oval dove for the edge of the pier, far too late to catch her. Open-mouthed, they watched her plummet, spead-legged. Then sail, then drift. About eighty lengths down, she coasted to a halt. Scootaloo flew into view, and looked up when Sweetie Belle pointed. She guided her back to the ship, too far under the island to see, and then returned to the wharf. The most Key and Oval could manage was a confused croak.

Scootaloo snorted and smirked. "Nobody ever fall off this rock?" They shook their heads. She swept over the wharf and picked up a pebble between two hooves. "Gravity comes from the islands." She drifted out about ten lengths. She floated without moving her wings. "In between 'em, there's nothing." She let go of the stone, and let it drift. "If you fall off, you just coast from air resistance. With a bit of work you could probably get back by puffing." She batted the stone back to the island. It only started arcing down over the wharf, and embedded itself in the soil behind them. Scootaloo perched on top of the pole. "It's fun, you should try it!" Before giving them a chance to answer, she fell backwards and disappeared below.

Key and Oval just blinked and looked at each other for a minute. Key broke the silence with an "Uhh..."

"Are you gonna jump?"

"I'll jump if you jump."

"But I'm not gonna jump if you don't jump."

"If I jumped off a cliff would you jump too?"

"I don't know, shall we find out?"

"On three?"

"One... _two-three-go!_"

Their synchronised jump wasn't going to set any records. It was more of a glorified fall, stepping off without rearing up. Key held his breath and winced, like he was going to hit something. Oval might have been whooping with excitement, or screaming with terror. Either way, she struggled to compete with the rush of wind in his ears. After the longest two and a half seconds in existence, the gale in his face was more a breeze. He opened his eyes. Empty sky greeted him.

Oval grabbed his hoof, giggling. "Look!"

He spun in place. The island couldn't be more than a hundred lengths away, and its rate of shrinking was practically nil. Giddiness overcame him. Less amusing was how close behind nausea was. His breathing quickened, and he was light-headed. He didn't even notice Scootaloo chasing them until she caught up and grabbed them by the tails. She looked like a disappointed teacher.

"Just a tip? Spread out, like a leaf. Don't dive unless you plan on swimming to the next island. Now grab my legs." The pair deliriously complied, and Scootaloo towed them to the ship.

Key and Oval landed on the deck with a thud. Scootaloo perched on a guardrail, chuckling. Sweetie Belle came to help them up. They insisted they were fine, even as they wobbled into the cabin. Key wanted to ask where the gravity on board was coming from, but figured there was a better time. They sat while their stomachs settled.

Sweetie Belle spilled the books on the table. Applebloom spread them and leafed through a couple of pages. She nodded sagely. "Ah guess you'll be wanting some kinda payment?"

"We want to come with you," Key blurted, sitting straight up. Oval rolled her eyes, but nodded. Applebloom arched a brow.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, my brother and I would like to..."

"This island is just so intensely, _acutely_ dull, so bewilderingly self-absorbed, it just... every day here, surrounded by the stubborn belief that the world ends at the edge of the grass, this wilful ignorance that the world is more than three hundred lengths across, crushes me, thoroughly and regularly." Key was panting and red-faced.

Applebloom's other eyebrow raised to join the first. "Ah thought you said he wasn't a words pony."

"He isn't until he thinks he's in a book." Oval winced at Key's glare. "Still, he just kinda whipped it out there. This rock is boring."

Applebloom and Scootaloo went to ask questions at the same time. They stopped, and paused. Scootaloo deferred with a nod and a gesture.

"Y'said you were both seventeen."

"He'll be eighteen this week, and I'll be eighteen later this month."

Applebloom raised a hoof and opened her mouth.

"I'm adopted," Key added. She nodded. Scootaloo cocked her head back.

"Ah ain't so sure about bringing young'uns aboard."

Sweetie Belle squinted. "Weren't you that age when you built this ship?" Oval looked over her shoulder, and Sweetie Belle flashed her a smile.

"Was it...?" Applebloom did some sums in her head. She broke into a chuckle a moment later. "Alright. Fair point."

"Because Key's a stray, he's probably already eighteen, if that meets some arbitrary condition."

Key giggled. "Woof." Scootaloo cringed.

"Okay, okay. Scoots, what were you gonna say?"

"Don't mistake this for being cold or anything, but what can you do? It'd be helpful if we had two extra hands instead of two passengers."

Oval stood up, raising the round diamond on her ruby flank. "I'm a jeweller, like my dad. If you have any dealings in gemstones, I can make sure you're getting a good price, or good quality, or..." Scootaloo didn't look too impressed. Applebloom glanced at the cover of _Elements of Harmony_, and back to her.

"I think we can find a use for you. And you, Key?"

"I, uh..."

"His special talent is taking credit for other ponies' work." Oval failed to keep a straight face. Key backhoofed her shoulder.

"It sounds kind of insubstantial, but my thing is finishing the unfinished." He looked around at his cutie mark, an arch with a pronounced keystone. "Like the library. We don't have a librarian, so when the books got moved from the old library they were just dumped in the new one. And Penny Sweet, she tried sorting them, but she was more interested in making sure the place was well-stocked with candy. So I just did it myself, and that's why we have a library and not just a room full of books."

Scootaloo snorted. "I didn't know you could get a metaphorical cutie mark."

"He'll find a use for it. It turns up in lots of little things." Oval dropped to a cautionary whisper. "Don't leave any unsolved Rubik's cubes lying around."

Applebloom returned to a single-brow-raised state. "Alright. That leaves one thing." She leaned forward over the desk. "Y'got anyone y'wanna tell that you're goin'?"


End file.
